Caesarian power was a crucial context in the Renaissance, as rulers in Europe, Russia and Turkey all sought to appropriate Caesarian imagery and authority, but it has been surprisingly little explored in scholarship. Analyzing plays by Shakespeare as well as other early modern dramatists, Lisa Hopkins explores the way in which the stories of the Caesars can be used to figure the stories of English rulers on the Renaissance stage.

Lisa Hopkins is Professor of English at Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

Contents: Introduction: 'king nor keisar'; Part I The Whore of Babylon: Reformation and deformation: Titus Andronicus; Hamlet among the Romans. Part II Caesar and the Czar: Tamburlaine and Julius Caesar; Pocahontas and The Winter's Tale. Part III The Romans in Britain: Cleopatra and the myth of Scota; The Romans in Wales: Cymbeline; He, Claudius; Conclusion; Works cited; Index.